55



We would remind those members who think we are treating then:

unfairly with regard to the illustrations that we have, in three months,

issued no less than four black and white plates (two of which appear in this

number); and it is our intention to give several more in the present

volume, besides the aforesaid six hand-coloured plates.


Since the first of November last, the Magazine has also been printed

on better paper than formerly. Editor.


CORRESPONDENCE.



MISTLETOE BERRIES.


Sir, — Can you tell me whether caged birds of any sort will eat

mistletoe berries? So far as my observation goes, and for nearly forty years

I have had exceptionally good opportunities of exercising it, the only one

of our wild birds that will take them is the Mistletoe Thrush. Certainly I

did once see one plucked by a Redbreast, but it was immediately dropped;

while I have known a Blackbird in a state of extreme destitution perch

within a couple of inches of a mistletoe berry and not offer to take it.


I hope you or some one will try whether any, and if so which, birds

will eat mistletoe berries. I think there can be no danger in making the

experiment as the Mistletoe Thrushes eat them so largelj' — in fact all they

can get; but they will not touch them till they are fully ripe. We have

much mistletoe in the garden of this College—mostly on apple trees, but

there is some on hawthorns, and two large plants on a sycamore — the first

I ever saw or heard of on such a tree.


I shall be very glad to learn what may be the result of offering

mistletoe berries to birds, but I believe they should be quite ripe — and that

they generally are not before the end of January. I think the berries on

the mistletoe that is cut for Christmas never ripen at all, but gradually dry

up instead of deliquescing as those which are left on the plant do. ( b ).


Magdalene College, Cambridge. ALFRED NEWTON.



[Perhaps some of our members, especially those who keep British

birds, will experiment with the mistletoe berries, and let us know the

results. Some writers express a doubt as to the Mistletoe Thrush (or

Missel-Thrush as it is often called, a phonetic spelling of Mistle or Mistletoe

Thrush) eating them at all freely; but Professor Newton not only tells us

that it does, but adds the information that the berries must be fully ripe

—the rock perchance over which these writers stumbled. — R. P.]



A BLOOD-THIRSTY MOCKING-BIRI) : IMPORTATION OF

FOREIGN BIRDS.


Sir,—I am quite sure you will be surprised to hear that the Mocking¬

bird that we have had communications about before (see page 13 of current



(i) I have some orchards, the trees in which are covered with mistletoe as I have never

seen them elsewhere. Mistletoe Thrushes also abound in my grounds. Whether they eat

the mistletoe-berries late in the winter I can't say they certainly do not touch them up to

Christmas, though they have already December 14th) nearly stripped my Vtws, Irish Yews,

and Honeysuckle of berries.—O. E. C.



